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SB 211 


.P8 U6 


1917 


Copy 1 



U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 

WM. A. TAYLOR, Chief. 



ECONOMICAL METHODS OF CUTTING SEED POTATOES. 

UNDER normal conditions, the cost of seed for planting a unit 
area of potatoes is high in comparison with the cost of seed 
for a like area of most other staple annual crops. This year, 
because of the scarcity of seed potatoes, the price is unusually high. 
It is therefore desirable to prepare the tubers used for seed in such a 
way as to plant the greatest possible area consistent with satisfactory 
crop yields. 

Experience has demonstrated that a seed piece weighing from H 
to 2 ounces approaches the ideal for use in the humid areas of the 
United States adapted to potato culture, and that such seed pieces 
prepared by cutting a 4-ounce tuber into halves, as shown in figure 1, 
B', are most desirable. The fact that smaller seed pieces, containing 
one or at most two eyes, give satisfactory yields should be sufficient 
incentive, on account of the scarcity and high cost of good seed, so to 
prepare such seed that it will plant a maximum acreage. Good seed 
cut so that there is one or, at most, two good eyes on a seed piece 
approximating 1 ounce in weight planted 12 inches apart in rows 30 
or 36 inches apart will give a satisfactory stand and use the minimum 
quantity of seed considered advisable. 

Figures 2 and 3 illustrate tubers of different form and size so cut as 
to carry at least one eye upon each seed piece and jet maintain a seed 
piece of a size sufficient to supply the developing plant with enough 
reserve food to give it a vigorous start. Contrary to what might be 
supposed, the large tuber shown in figure 3, which weighs 8 ounces, 
is capable of being cut into 1 1 suitable' seed pieces each with one or 
more good eyes, while the 5-ounce tuber shown in figure 2 could only 
be cut into 6 satisfactory seed pieces. The larger tuber was in this 
case the more economical for seed purposes. It must be remem- 
bered that these two tubers are very different in shape and represent 
different types of the same variety. It is not, therefore, just to 
conclude that the large tuber will, for all sorts, prove to be the most 
economical for seed ; this would be particularly true of varieties such 
as Rural New Yorker No. 2 and Sir Walter Raleigh. In general, it is 
believed that the 4 to 6 ounce potato will furnish the maximum 
number of single-eye pieces per bushel of seed stock. 

This season all tubers of 2-ounce weight should be cut into halves, 
all 3£ to 4 ounce tubers should be quartered, and all larger seed tubers 
should be cut to single-eye pieces. With the pieces planted one in a 
place in well-prepared soil, and with good cultivation, the resulting 
crop will justify the care suggested in the preparation of the seed. 

99347°— 17 




Fig. 1. — A and B, 4-ounce Trish Cobbler seed potatoes: A', the 4-ounce seed potato shown at A, quar- 
tered; B', the 4-ounce seed potato shown at B, halved. 

Planted in rows 36 inches apart and with the pieces 12 in°hes apart in the row, it would require 
approximately 14,520 pieces to plant an acre. If the l-oun r o tubers are quartered, as shown at A', it 
will require approximately 3,630 potatoes (9072 pounds, or 15j bushels of seed) to plant an acre. If the 
tubers are cut into halves only, as shown at B', it will require twice the quantity of seed mentioned 
above, or about 30} bushels. If the seed pieces are 12 inches apart in rows only 30 inches apart it will 
require about 17,424 pieces to plant an acre. 



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\2 1917 




Fig. 2.— A, a 5-ounce Oreen Mountain seed potato; B, first step in cutting such a potato into seed pieces; 

C, the process of cutting completed. . , 

Planted in rows 36 inches apart with the pieces 12 inches apart in the row, it would require about 

2,420 five-ounce potatoes cut into six pieces, approximately 751 pounds, or 12J bushels of seed, to plant 

an acre. 



HBKHKY OF CONGRESS 



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A 







Fig. 3. — A, an 8-ounce Green Mountain seed potato; B, first step in cutting such a potato into seed pieces; 
C, the process of cutting completed. 

Six of the eleven seed pieces into which the tuber was cut have only one eye; the remaining five have 
two or more. Planted in rows 36 inches apart and 12 inches apart in the row, it would require about 
1,320 potatoes like the one shown at A to plant 1 acre— approximately 660 pounds, or 11 bushels. 



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